I {heart} Tattoos!

I always have. When I was young I loved temporary tattoos...though, the ones they make today are tons better! My daughter loves them and sometimes they take weeks to come off!

(I actually wrote up this post a while back to share on a link up, but never did, so I thought I would share it now.)

I currently have four tattoos...one is a work in progress, though actually b/c I have ideas to add to it. Three of the four tattoos show my Egyptian heritage. The other is my "trendy" tattoo...while I do like the tattoo (it's a cat's face flower)...it's trendy b/c it's a tramp stamp. Yep - I got a low back tattoo when they were all the rave! A friend and I went to get them together on a crazy night out! I don't regret it and it will always remind me of my friend, whom I never get to see anymore. I was 26 when I got this tattoo - this was my 2nd tattoo.

I used to say that I'd wait until I was 21 to get my first tattoo b/c by that age I would be certain what I wanted to get. Well, I was a couple years early b/c I got my first tattoo when I was nineteen. I went to visit my niece when we were in college and we decided to go get tattoos together. I knew I wanted an ankh, but I wanted something unique. I got this tattoo on my hip. It's a 3D tattoo, but it's drawn so that it looks like the front of the ankh is invisible and all you see is the 3D part of the tattoo.

This tattoo is 16 years old (WOW) and has faded some. It's also only about 3 inches tall...and I didn't get a very clear picture - sorry about that.

My third tattoo I got in 2010 after I'd had both my babies. I had both their names written in Arabic and I had played with them in photoshop to give them a circular pattern and emboss the letters a little. When I was designing it I actually was doing it for a medallion design. I'd wanted to have it made the next time we went to Egypt into a pendant that I could wear for a necklace. After having it hanging up in my office and looking at it every day I decided I'd also like to have it as a new tattoo. At first my idea was to put it on the inside of my wrist, but then later decided I'd rather have it on my foot. Arabic is read right to left and the name on the top is Emma and Aaron is on the bottom. This is on the top of my right foot.

I love this tattoo.

Then last year I got my fourth tattoo. It wasn't planned at first and now it's become my "work-in-progress" tattoo! My niece was in town visiting my other niece (her sis) and wanted to go get a new tattoo...my neighbor had said she wanted a new tattoo so I asked her if she wanted to join us. That led to another phone call and it ended up being a girls' night out at the ink shop! LOL! We had such a blast! Four of the five of us that went out got new ink that night.

This time I wanted a Lotus flower. Lotus flowers are seen on many Egyptian paintings on papyrus...the Lotus is representative of the sun, it rises up out of the water in the morning and closes back up at night. It's also been known to represent creation. Egyptian art is all one dimensional. When I told the tattoo artist I wanted a lotus flower he immediately thought of the three dimensional lotus flowers that you typically see in some Asian styled ink - I had to google some images to show him what I had in mind instead and he drew it up free hand from looking at the pictures I picked out!

The tattoo I got that night was only a portion of what I wanted. Here's a quick view of what I had done that first night - right after I'd had it done, so it's all still red. I had also wanted an infinity sign, so the loop of the stems is meant to incorporate that as well.

(like I said - RIGHT after I got it!)

A few months later I went back and had more flowers added to it.

Before I looked at this picture I didn't realize that I had so many freckles on my shoulders! Teenage years spent out at the lake in the sun all the time I guess!

I don't know if I am done or not...I have ideas to add to this last one, hence why I call it my work-in-progress tattoo. But I only have ideas in my head - I need a to see it drawn out to see if it really looks as good as I think it does in my head! :)

hey, were you talking about my linkup? why did you not share then?! ;) well, you know I love this post, cause I LOVE me some tattoos :) and yours are awesome!! seriously, I love the one on your back the most. So pretty :)